MOBILE, Ala. -- The owner of Mobile’s second-tallest building plans to dangle a large lighted sign from the roof that will display different images throughout the year, including a Moon Pie for the city’s New Year’s Eve celebration.

The 34-story RSA-BankTrust Building — formerly the AmSouth Building — will have a 25-foot-tall structure on the roof with an 18-foot-long arm extending over Royal Street, according to architectural drawings of the renovations found online.

The renderings appear to show the lighted sign on a pulley system that can be lowered toward the street.

David Bronner, CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, said the light display will be a permanent structure and that it can be adjusted to display different images. He said the display could be used to welcome visitors or celebrate big achievements in the life of Mobile.

"It’s a vehicle that will be there year-round, whether it’s New Year’s Eve, Mardi Gras or the Fourth of July," he said. "You’ve got to see it to really appreciate it. It’s really cool."

Bronner will be in Mobile on Thursday, and is planning to have a news conference with Mobile Mayor Sam Jones.

"New Year’s Eve this year is going to be very exciting," Jones said. "It’s going to be something that the citizens of the city of Mobile and the entire region are going to be extremely proud of."

The plans for the building are among dozens of architectural renderings listed on www.ldiline.com, a website that sells architectural plans to contractors wishing to bid on construction projects. The drawings are by Montgomery-based Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood Inc., the architecture and engineering firm that’s overseeing the renovations.

City officials declined to comment in detail about the plans, but Mobile City Councilman Fred Richardson, who has engineered the city’s use of a giant Moon Pie in New Year’s Eve celebrations, said at Tuesday morning’s City Council meeting that there would be an "earth-shattering" announcement regarding the Moon Pie on Thursday.

RSA purchased the downtown skyscraper for $6.75 million in February 2009 and has spent millions updating the façade and renovating the interior of the1965 structure. In August, it announced that BankTrust would lease 25 percent of the office space and would get its name on the building.

W. Bibb Lamar Jr., the chief executive officer of BancTrust Financial Group, said the bank only found out about the plans Tuesday.

"I think it’s great if it will bring people downtown," Lamar said.

Lamar said RSA, as the landlord, has the right to adorn the building as it pleases.

Bronner said he was inspired by Richardson’s Moon Pie-themed New Year’s Eve events. For the past two years, the city has used a crane to lower a giant, lighted, papier-maché Moon Pie sign near Cooper Waterfront Park at the stroke of midnight.

Bronner said he was as skeptical as anyone when he first heard about the plans. But he said he quickly realized the potential it had to draw positive attention to Mobile.

"I thought it was crazy until I saw it on CNN," he said. "We basically took Fred’s idea and took it a step further."

The display could be a beacon drawing pedestrians downtown, Bronner said.

"You really need that action on the street if you’re going to have a thriving downtown," he said. "The concept is to create something that can benefit the whole community. It becomes a really unique, memorable thing for the city."

(This story was written by Press-Register staff reporters Jeff Amy, Dan Murtaugh and George Talbot.)